September - National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

It's that time of year again - September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Nick supports CureSearch because 95 cents of every dollar actually goes to childhood cancer research (rhabdomyosarcoma is a childhood cancer). Each year in the U.S. there are approximately 12,400 children between the ages of birth and 19 years of age who are diagnosed with cancer. About one in 300 boys and one in 333 girls will develop cancer before their 20th birthday. In 1998, about 2500 died of cancer, thus making cancer the most common cause of death by disease for children and adolescents in America. We feel CureSearch is doing a terrific job and are grateful for their work.

He also supports First Descents as it targets the young-adult cancer survivors in their adventure camps. The following stats from "I'm Too Young For This" website, validate Nick's desire to bring awareness to the young-adult generation of cancer survivors:

STATS & FACTS

(1) Each year, nearly 70,000 young adults(YA), aged 15-39, are diagnosed with cancer and roughly 10,000 will die due to the disease..º

(2) Over the past 30 years, young adults (15-39) have seen the greatest increase in cancer incidence than any other age group.¹

(3) The 5-year survival rates in YA has not improved over the past 30 years on par with other age groups..¹

(4) Why? Three reasons: delayed diagnosis, access to clinical trials and age-appropriate peer support that contributes to quality of life.º (Note that none of these reasons have anything to do with cancer research so helping YA doesn't necessarily mean white labcoats.)

(5) The #1 social issue faced by YA is isolation.

(6) Psychosocial research (quality-of-life) is tantamount to biological (clinical) research and the notion of survivorship vs 'cure'.²

(7) The entire medical community and cancer continuum at large is grossly uneducated as to how to effectively communicate with, diagnose, treat, support and follow-up with YA.

(8) Actual cancer 'research' in YA (all cancers) is different than cancer research in children and older adults. Donating your money to 'cancer research' today does not mean it will help young adults unless it specifically says so or if you specifically ask. Only a very small handful of young adult cancer research projects currently exist.

MORE STATS

(1) 1 in 50 Americans is between 18 and 40.²
(2) 1 in 50 Americans (18-40) is a cancer survivor. (est.)
(3) There are approximately 16 million Americans in college.²
(4) 1 in 100 college students is a cancer survivor. (est.)

Big box cancer organizations do not currently fund YA cancer research or support the most basic of social services to the YA support community of organizations like this one. If these statistics make you want to puke and you truly want to start helping this new generation of cancer survivors, give to the groups without middlemen, where you know where your dollar goes and there is measured impact. Don't get lost in a sea of 10,000 people racing for cures.

Please join me in wearing your gold ribbon pin this month (gold is the color for childhood cancer); let me know if you don't have one and I'll send it to you.

I was finally able to focus yesterday and our brackets have been posted for the WACKY Charity Softball Tournament this weekend (thank you, big time, Coach Travis!!!!). Nick has been feeling a teensy bit better so we all feel better today.

With love,

Lori